Enjoy the Silence

my HEAD and i cannot BUILD

IT. snage and snatred

Spencer Reid who genuinely loves that there is one subject where you know vastly more than he does, and finds it fascinating rather than intimidating.

Spencer Reid who listens to you explain Middle Egyptian, hieroglyphic writing, funerary practices, or archaeological methodology with the same concentration he gives someone explaining a case.

Spencer Reid who inevitably starts learning about Egyptology because he wants to understand the things you're passionate about.

Spencer Reid who remembers every Egyptologist, archaeologist, historian or theorist you have ever mentioned, even if you only mentioned their name once.

Spencer Reid who casually references an academic argument you told him about six months ago and then looks confused when you stare at him in disbelief.

Spencer Reid who asks you questions about your research that occasionally make you stop and think because he approaches your subject from an entirely different academic perspective.

Spencer Reid who becomes fascinated by how archaeologists reconstruct an individual's life from incomplete evidence because, to him, it feels strangely similar to behavioural analysis.

Spencer Reid who can spend an entire evening discussing whether an archaeological interpretation can ever truly be objective.

Spencer Reid who gets so invested in an academic argument with you that neither of you realises you've been debating for nearly two hours.

Spencer Reid who genuinely enjoys being corrected by you because it means he's learned something new.

Spencer Reid who gets particularly excited when you say, "Actually, that's not quite right," because he knows you're about to explain something he didn't know.

Spencer Reid who reads your academic papers even when they're completely outside his area of expertise simply because they're yours.

Spencer Reid who leaves tiny handwritten notes in the margins of your drafts like, "This argument is really strong" or "I want to hear more about this." Spencer Reid who occasionally writes "I don't understand this paragraph, yet, but I love you" in the margins just to make you laugh.

Spencer Reid who knows when you're struggling with your research because you start pacing while talking through the same problem repeatedly.

Spencer Reid who sits beside you and says, "Talk me through it," because he knows you'll often find the answer simply by explaining the problem aloud.

Spencer Reid who does exactly the same thing after a difficult case, pacing around your apartment while explaining behavioural patterns until you eventually ask one question that makes him stop dead.

Spencer Reid who looks at you like you've just solved the entire case when you ask one question that changes his perspective.

Spencer Reid who loves that you're intelligent in your own right and have spent years becoming an expert in something completely different from him.

Spencer Reid who never feels like he has to simplify his thoughts for you.

Spencer Reid who occasionally forgets that not everyone can follow him through three completely unrelated academic tangents in one conversation because you're somehow always able to keep up.

Spencer Reid who loves when you interrupt his rambling with, "Wait, that's actually interesting," because suddenly he's got permission to keep going.

Spencer Reid who has accepted that neither of you is capable of having a normal conversation.

Spencer Reid who asks how your day was and somehow ends up listening to a twenty-minute explanation about an archaeological discovery.

Spencer Reid who sends you a picture of an old building with the message, "This made me think of you," and then follows it with a completely unnecessary paragraph about its architectural history.

Spencer Reid who loves meeting you in random airports because you're both constantly travelling for work.

Spencer Reid who always looks for you first when he walks into an airport arrivals hall, even though he already knows exactly where you're waiting.

Spencer Reid who memorises your flight numbers without consciously trying to.

Spencer Reid who knows when you're supposed to land and pretends he doesn't spend the entire time checking his phone.

Spencer Reid who always asks what you're working on when you're away because he genuinely wants to know what you've discovered.

Spencer Reid who gets disproportionately excited when you send him photographs from an excavation.

Spencer Reid who zooms in on your archaeological photographs and starts analysing whatever is visible in the background.

Spencer Reid who gets distracted from his own work because you sent him a photograph of an interesting inscription.

Spencer Reid who responds to your excavation photographs with far too many questions.

Spencer Reid who loves museums with you but becomes completely incapable of leaving when he finds an exhibit he's interested in.

Spencer Reid who reads every single plaque in a museum.

Spencer Reid who becomes fascinated by the history of Egyptology itself because you're constantly reminding him that studying ancient Egypt also means studying how modern archaeologists have interpreted, collected and displayed Egyptian material.

Spencer Reid who asks you about colonial archaeology, museum collections, early excavation practices and changing interpretations because he's fascinated by how knowledge itself changes over time.

Spencer Reid who finds it incredibly attractive when you become passionate about the ethics of archaeology.

Spencer Reid who quietly watches you argue your position at an academic event and looks unbearably proud of you.

Spencer Reid who doesn't understand why you're surprised when he tells people how brilliant you are.

Spencer Reid who says, "She's an Egyptologist," with the same pride other people might use when introducing a Nobel laureate.

Spencer Reid who remembers the date of your first major excavation because you mentioned it once.

Spencer Reid who remembers all of it because he knows how much your work means to you.

Spencer Reid who has museum postcards, conference badges, little notes and photographs from your trips carefully tucked away.

Spencer Reid who keeps a photograph of you at an archaeological site as his phone wallpaper because you're standing there looking completely absorbed in something you love.

Spencer Reid who sometimes catches himself staring at you while you're explaining something and realizes he hasn't heard the last thirty seconds because he's too busy watching you get excited.

Spencer Reid who absolutely refuses to admit that he was staring because he thinks you're beautiful.

Spencer Reid who loves that your relationship is essentially two highly specialized nerds constantly exchanging information.

Spencer Reid who simply loves that you're interested enough to ask.

Spencer Reid who realizes that being understood by someone doesn't necessarily mean having identical interests, it means finding someone who genuinely wants to understand why yours matter to you.

Spencer Reid who falls in love with you all over again every time you start explaining something you're passionate about, because he knows exactly what it feels like to love knowledge so much that you can't stop yourself from sharing it.

★・・・・・・★

Q3. What was Reid’s college life like?

A3. All work and no play (except for magic tricks). Obviously this is up to much speculation. Very little is known about Reid’s college days. We know he graduated from high school at the tender age of 12 (according to “LDSK”, “Somebody’s Watching”, and “Sex, Birth & Death”). He obtained his undergraduate degree at the age of 16 and obtained his PhD in Mathematics at 17 (according to an article on his father’s computer in “Memoriam”). He later went on to get PhDs in Chemistry and Engineering. According to “Masterpiece” he followed up with BA degrees in Psychology and Sociology and and was working on a degree in Philosophy. I think we can assume he finished that degree already. We know from season 6 episode 21 “The Stranger” that Reid was able to drive at age 14 but that the government would not issue him a license (due to his age) so he rode a bike while in college.

The article on his father’s computer noted that he chose Caltech because of the professors he wanted to work with rather than the weather or girls. Caltech is in Pasadena and I guess the weather there is supposed to be nice. One little note was that Reid considered studying the classics (literature) but had already read EVERYTHING in the curriculum.

This to me suggested that he was only taking classes on subjects that he felt he needed to be taught about.

Since he finished so quickly I can assume he didn’t have much free time. He must have taken a full course-load and then some. He probably tested out of some classes (which is what I did) and maybe worked with the professors on getting prerequisites out of the way.

I do wonder if Reid started out at a smaller college in Las Vegas or had some sort of correspondence so he wouldn’t have to go far away from his mother. She would have needed someone to take care of her and there is no way a 12/13 year old would be left without some adult supervision at a prestigious college. So I’m guessing Reid either stayed with an older student, a professor, or a host family.

He mentioned in “Derailed” that he used to practice magic tricks DURING exams in college. I’m guessing someone finished tests quickly. 

Then we have his rivalry/friendship with Ethan from “Jones”. He mentioned that they knew each other in Vegas (I think). In an interview Matthew referred to that character as his nemesis who had an IQ of 188. Ethan looked older than Reid to me so I don’t know how that worked out. I don’t know if they went to the same high school or rival high schools. I think if they’d gone to the same one then Reid wouldn’t have felt so alone. We can see that Reid had a bit of a playful relationship with him– which we saw when he snuck up on Ethan in the alley in New Orleans. Reid didn’t refer to him as his college roommate or anything, but he did note they started the FBI Academy together. So my guess is that they probably studied together and played chess but didn’t live in the same dorm/room. 

I wonder if at some point Reid might have moved on to a dorm. For some reason I think he would have wanted to avoid dorm life. This was reinforced when I read about the various dorms/“houses” at caltech. They are rather colorful. Apparently Caltech alumni were consulted for the movie “Real Genius”. The prank where they froze the floor in the dorm was actually done by students in Page House.

There is some interesting and amusing information on Caltech’s house system at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_System_at_the_California_Institute_of_Technology

It looks like bored geniuses get into some silly things.

I’m willing to bet Reid had merit based scholarships and such but even that probably wouldn’t have covered all of his expenses, and Reid likes his coffee and junkfood. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Reid had a part-time job in the library (which is what my sister did when she was in college).

In order to get a PhD he would have had to do some type of internship somewhere. He probably did some work as a teacher’s assistant for some things– probably helping other students in the chemistry lab. I’m not sure what sort of internship one does for a math degree (possibly generating reports on statistics)… For chemistry I imagine he worked in some lab. For engineering he probably had to proofread technical manuals or something. One of his dissertations was "Identifying Non-obvious relationship factors using cluster weighted modeling and geographic regression". Cluster-weighted modeling (CWM) is an algorithm-based approach to non-linear prediction of outputs (dependent variables) from inputs (independent variables) based on density estimation using a set of models (clusters) that are each notionally appropriate in a sub-region of the input space. Geographic regression is a model for medical statistics.

So I guess we know why Reid tends to have so much medical knowledge when he didn’t go for a medical or biology degree.

I’m guessing that he met Gideon while working on his second or third PhD.

Did I mention that the mascot for Caltech is a beaver?

Edit: I corresponded with someone who went to Caltech and she informed me that Reid would have been very safe at Caltech because of the honor system. Students will take the piss out of each other and tease each other, but if a student demands that the others stop tormenting him/her, the other students are honor-bound to cease and desist. Apparently Caltech is full of oddballs and Reid would have fit in.  I should note that Garcia also went to Caltech.

I also forgot to mention that Reid’s parents might have set up some sort of trust fund or college fund for him when he was younger.

Someone pointed out to me that Caltech does not offer degrees in Psychology or Sociology so it is likely that after getting his PhDs that Reid went to another university for those. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got them from Georgetown or one of the universities near Quantico. The fact that he only had bachelors degrees suggests to me that he didn’t get to invest as much time. Perhaps he had already been recruited by Gideon and took those classes while in the FBI. I also find it interesting that he got BA degrees instead of BS degrees (especially since his PhDs are science-related).